Know your fear
by A Very Gay Space Kitten
Summary: Katara faces an old foe, and must do something she vowed never to do again. What will happen? Will she make it?


**AN: Wooh! Round 6! I hope this goes well.**

**Prompts: (word) sweating (1 point), (dialogue) "Is this how it's going to be from now on?" (2 points), (quote) "To him who is in fear everything rustles." - Sophocles (3 points). Round element: Blood**

"Aang, where are we going?" Katara asked her new boyfriend (she never got tired of calling him that).

"Somewhere I hoped we wouldn't have to go again." Aang answered ominously.

"Where? Why do we have to go?" She asked, concerned.

"You'll find out when we get there." He said gravely.

Katara looked at Aang and sighed. She hated it when he was like this. Not because he was unpleasant, but because the cause was often unpleasant. But there was nothing she could do for the moment, except watch the ground as they flew.

After a few hours, Katara had decided to enjoy the beautiful scenery below her. There were multicolored trees of oranges, reds, yellows, greens that resembled firey leaves when the sunlight shone across them all. She could spot blue oceans that sparkled, and the white foam that formed across the waters. But the most beautiful, were the firelilies. They bloomed only for a small while, and we're hard to find. The last place she had seen the lilies was...

"Oh no." Katara quickly became wide eyed as she realized they were back at the place. A fire nation village that they had stayed in while disguised, months ago. Almost a year ago in fact. It seemed like a nice place, and for the most part it was. Except for what had happened.

People in the village had thought some sort of spirit or monster was controlling people, and kidnapping them forever. When Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Toph had arrived, they quickly learned about these stories and decided to investigate. At the same time, they were staying in an inn run by a kind lady named Hama. After investigation, they discovered that it was most likely not a spirit, but they couldn't figure out who or what it was. Well, Hama turned out to be a Waterbender from the Southern Tribe, who wanted to teach Katara about her own waterbending techniques. While Katara and Hama were practicing, the other 3 decided to continue their investigation. They soon discovered however, that it was in fact Hama that had taken control of people to trap them in a secret cave. Katara soon learned how: Bloodbending. To control the blood within a person, to bend them to your own will. Katara had refused to learn the technique, and was almost killed by Hama. When she stood up against Hama, Aang and Sokka were then put in danger. In an effort to save her friends, Katara learned the technique, uses it against Hama. Hama was then taken away, presumably to prison.

Now however, there was trouble stirring once again. And the two friends were soon to find out what.

When Aang and Katara landed in the village, they immediately began questioning the townspeople about the recent attacks that had been going on.

"I was just walking in the forest, searching for some wild herbs, when all this sudden a rabbit-squirrel attacked me! Usually they're friendly, but this one was nothing like that." One older woman reported.

"A wild platypus-bear broke into my house and attacked me! I thought they were supposed to stay away from populated areas, but this one was just fine with attacking my house!" A farmer said.

Report after report, story after story, attack after attack, Aang and Katara kept hearing things that they didn't like. What could cause the animals to be this aggressive?

Once they were done learning as much as they could for the day, Aang and Katara began theorizing.

"It sounds to me like angry animal spirits." Aang said.

"I agree. But why would they be so angry?" Katara asked.

"I don't know. Maybe a certain part of the wildlife here was messed with. We should investigate." Aang suggested.

"Good idea. I'll search the forest to the west, you can search the forest to the east. We're bound to find out something if we split up." Katara said.

Aang nodded his head yes, and said a quick "Meet back here" before he kissed her on the cheek and took off.

When Katara first began exploring the woods, she felt fine. She worried very little, and figured if an animal attacked her then she could just scare it with her bending. But as time passed in the forest, she grew anxious. It was eerily quiet, except for the beating of her own heart growing louder and louder.

Then, she began hearing whispers. They were soft at first, but they continued to grow louder and more frequent. But the strangest thing was, the voice sounded familiar. She couldn't quite place who it belonged to, but she knew it from somewhere.

Then, a figure appeared before her. It was tall, but hunched over, and thin. You could almost make out the shapes of bones. The figure, presumably a woman, had long, stringy hair. And when it looked at Katara, the eyes bore deep down into her soul.

With a shock, Katara realized it was Hama. The same old woman who she had learned Bloodbending from. The same old woman, who was supposed to be in jail currently.

Katara sucked in a sharp breath and listened to the horrifying silence that followed. The felt herself sweating profusely, and felt her heart pounding against her chest like it wanted to break free.

Hama raised a hand and 5 rabbit-squirrels came down from the trees. They all moved in synchronized actions as she moved her fingers. Then she made a fist, and the rabbit-squirrels attacked.

Katara easily used waterbending to free each once in blocks of ice. Then she froze Hama's feet in place.

"Why are you doing this?! Please just leave me and all of these villagers alone!" Katara screamed through tears of fear.

"Is this how it's going to be from now on, Katara?" Hama asked.

"What-"

"Are you going to continue being afraid? Embrace the power, embrace it all! The good and bad! You have to accept it as part of you!" Hama declared.

Katara suddenly felt a force of being pushed down onto the ground. She struggled against this force, and felt her body begin to burn with pain. She could no longer cry out. All she could do was let her tears fall as she silently sat in terror.

"To him who is in fear, everything rustles." Hama said, "Break through. Bloodbend, and accept it. Don't fear it anymore."

Katara closed her eyes and breathed in and out slowly. She felt the power of the moon flow within her, and she rose up. She then looked at Hama, moved her hand upwards, and then closed her own fist, intending for her to be pushed to the ground. What happened instead, was she disappeared, as if she were a hallucination.

Then, she heard one more whisper, "Fear demands to be known, and to be accepted."


End file.
